Quote of the week

“There’s no remorse. He just tried to find justifications.” —Crown prosecutor Anne Andrée Charette, on the Church of Downtown Montreal’s Daniel Cormier, sentenced this week to five years imprisonment for sexually assaulting his “wife,” whom he married when she was 10 and he was 48.

Park fight

A tiny park with barely 20 trees in Pointe St-Charles will be the site of a snow-building contest with political undertones this coming Sunday, Feb. 1.

The point of the Don’t Touch My Park! event isn’t so much to build men made of snow, but rather to show the Southwest borough and the CN land developers that the park is indeed used by area residents. The developers have wanted to build a street through the park since 2004, in order to ease truck traffic. Though the borough and developers yielded to residents’ protest last summer, they are again showing interest in the park.

Local watchdog group Action-Gardien’s Blandine Charbonneau says the borough has other options. “The road behind the park should be expanded. It would allow for better development of the CN yards for the entire community,” she says.

Natasha Alexandroff, of the People’s Urban Planning Project—a group of concerned citizens organizing Sunday’s activities—says lack of green space in the area is at the heart of the matter.

“There’s a lot of dust and noise from the trucks around here, so it’s important to keep some green space in the neighbourhood,” she says.

The event runs from 2–4 p.m. at Wellington and de la Congrégation. Go to actiongardien.org for details.

FRAPRU flick

Fans of urban camping had two opportunities to practise their hobby in Quebec City during its 400th birthday party last summer. Not only did campers brave two July nights in parking lots near the Plains of Abraham in the hopes of glimpsing the McCartney mullet, in June, 80 homeless and under-housed pitch their tents near the close-by Grande Théâtre. Organized by the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), the “Camp of 4 Withouts” (which is wittier in French: “Camp des 4 sans” sounds like “quatre cents”) aimed to draw attention to the fact that those without a roof, without cash, without rights and without a voice remain sidelined in Quebec.

FRAPRU is celebrating the success of the event with the launch of a 30-minute DVD, directed by Montreal photographer Isabelle Hayeur. “It documents life in the camp, the community that was formed and there are interviews with participants about life on the street,” says FRAPRU’s Jean-Claude Laporte.

Following the camp, the Liberal government pledged to construct 3,000 social housing units per year over five years. “That’s the biggest expenditure in social housing in a long time,” says Laporte.

The DVD launch takes place this Friday, Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. at Centre 7400 (7400 St-Laurent). Call (514) 522-1010 to reserve a seat.

by MATT JONES

Femme
explained

If it’s been a while since you’ve last seen a movie exploring concepts of sexual identity as radical gender practices, head to McGill University’s Shatner Building (3480 McTavish, room B29) on Monday, Feb. 3, when Queer McGill presents a screening of Kami Chisholm and Elizabeth Stark’s Female to Femme (FtF), an in-depth and controversial look into the world of the lesbian femme.

Through a series of interviews with famous femmes, including actress/writer Guinevere Turner, rock stars Leslie Mah (Tribe 8) and Bitch (Bitch & Animal) and satirical sketches, FtF examines the marginalization of femmes within the lesbian community, the construction of lesbian-feminine identities and the politics of gender. Following the screening, presented as part of Queer McGill’s Divergence Movie Night event series, attendees are invited to participate in a facilitated discussion.

“With the Divergence Movie Nights, we try to show films that deal with all kinds of issues which are of real relevance to the GLBTTQ community,” explains Ren Haskett, Queer McGill’s policy and equity coordinator. “But we want to encourage people from outside of the queer community to come and watch these films as well.”

The show starts at 7:30 p.m., free admission (suggested donation $5). More at queermcgill.ca.

by STEVE ZYLBERGOLD

Afghan
women’s lot

If you’re somehow prepared to accept the radical hypothesis that the women of this world should be entitled to the same rights, protections and privileges as their male counterparts, then take note that Hasin Banu Ghazanfar will be in town Thursday, Feb. 5, to deliver a lecture on the current state of affairs for Afghan women.

Ghazanfar is the Afghan minister of women’s affairs in Hamid Karzai’s government, so, as Olivier Bourque, spokesperson for event organizers Rights and Democracy says, “she really knows and understands what’s going on there. This is her first official visit to Canada and we feel it’s crucial, given how involved our country has been in Afghanistan, that the Canadian public hears her message. She has very important things to say to Canadians to help them better understand what the future holds for Afghan women.”

Said understanding doesn’t come cheap though, with admission for the general public costing some $90 a head in advance. Ghazanfar’s scheduled lecture, Women’s Rights in Afghanistan: Issues and Prospects for the Future, gets underway at noon, in the Salon Picasso of the Sofitel hotel (1155 Sherbrooke W).

Advance registration is mandatory via corim.qc.ca.

by CHRIS BARRY

Rear-view mirror

12 YEARS AGO - JAN. 30–FEB. 6, 1997

On the cover:A still from Revenge of the Creature, as the Rialto hosts Attack of the Killer B-Movies mini-fest. Other films playing are It Came From Outer Space, They Saved Hitler’s Brain, Death Race 2000, Pink Flamingos and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.
•In his Hit & Run column, Terry Haig writes that Canadiens coach Mario Tremblay “broke the code and it could cost him his job” when, following a 6-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, he told a press conference “The players quit on me.”
•Reviewing Björk’s Telegram, Mireille Silcott writes that, “Things really shine when her vocal schtick (‘beautiful = ‘beeee-youuuu-teeee-fooooohhl!’ on her kiddie-boo planet) is toned down.”
•Sasha reports on alleged cures for premature ejaculation, with help from a “guinea-penis:” Maintain (with well-known numbing agent benzocaine), Kama Sutra Co.’s minty Pleasure Balm (“would do in a pinch on lamb chops if you were out of mint jelly”) and Suifan’s Kwang Tze Solution (guinea-penis claims it “burns like hellfire, please make it stop”).

Angel >>Sensible U.S. green policy, finally For eight long, dark years, the Mirror editorial board has railed against the Bush administration’s willful stupidity, constant undermining and cowardly abrogation of leadership in the fight against global warming. That, finally, may change, thanks to the new guy. President Obama this week issued sweeping new regulations to tighten auto emissions standards and invest in alternative energy sources, both designed to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. Widely hailed by environmentalists as a sharp turn towards basic scientific sanity, the U.S.’s waking up to the very real though long ignored threat of global warming just might convince its northern neighbour to follow suit.

Insect >>Pope Ratzinger The pontiff might be tightening up the Catholic Church’s rules, but he isn’t making any friends, or sense, doing it. This week, Benedict XVI de-excommunicated four hard-line bishops from the Society of Saint Pius X, who reject the liberalizing reforms of the Vatican II council in the early 1960s. Among them is Richard Williamson, who explicitly denied the murder of six million Jews during World War II. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the pope also slammed the U.S. president over his decision to repeal the ban on U.S. funding for foreign family planning agencies that offer abortions. Onwards to irrelevance, Christian soldier!